Pontevedro, a small Balkan state, is on the brink of financial ruin. Its sharpest and finest officials and diplomats are gathered in Paris with one goal – to convince the beautiful Pontevedrian widow, Hanna, wife of the late “moneybags Glavari”, to look past the handsome Parisian youths and instead marry a lad from the old country to keep the treasury afloat.

Unfortunately, the only eligible bachelor, Count Danilo, is her ex and somewhat occupied with the loose women of Maxim’s – “a place to take ladies, but never one’s wife”. His golden rule is “Love many, propose to a few, and marry none.”

It will take all the nous the Pontevedrians can muster without falling over themselves to ensure these two become romantically entangled again!

Act I

The Pontevedrian embassy, Paris. Hanna Glavari, a rich young Pontevedrian widow, is out of mourning and looking to enjoy life again in Paris, with some flirtation on the side. However, if she were to marry a Parisian, her fortune would quickly be syphoned out of Pontevedro, where it singlehandedly bankrolls the state. The only hope is for her to marry a fellow Pontevedrian and in Paris there is only one man for the job – Count Danilo Danilovich, a sworn bachelor, and worse, her former beau who was forbidden to marry her when she was a poor farm girl. The Pontevedrian Ambassador to France, Baron Mirko Zeta, holds a state ball at the embassy to celebrate their monarch’s birthday, where, with the help of his long-suffering assistant, Njegus, he plans to reintroduce the former lovers and rekindle their romance. Although, he would do well to attend to his own wife, Valencienne!

Act II

Hanna’s home in Paris, the next day. Revelling in her freedom and the attention, Hanna holds a Pontevedrian party. Zeta and Danilo continue their quest to scare off the potential competition, during which an incriminating fan plays a pivotal role in revealing extramarital dalliances, and a tryst in the summerhouse appears to dash Danilo’s hopes.

Act III

Maxim’s restaurant, later the same evening. Hanna, playing her own games now, has booked out the club. Valencienne and Camille reluctantly bid farewell to their affair, while Hanna provokes Danilo by cavorting with the can-can dancing grisettes. Details of Valencienne’s fan and the late Mr Glavari’s will bring the night to a momentous close!

Bandmaster and composer Franz Lehár was born in Hungary in 1870, and went on to study violin at the Prague Conservatory where his compositional talent was spotted and encouraged by Antonín Dvořák.

After graduating in 1888 he served as bandmaster and kapellmeister at various posts for the Austro-Hungarian army and navy, before being appointed conductor in 1902 at Vienna’s famed Theater an der Wien, where The Merry Widow received its premiere performance on 30 December 1905.

The operetta quickly became an international sensation, making its composer a multi-millionaire almost overnight, and receiving an estimated half a million performances in its first sixty years alone.

It’s no wonder - with melodies to die for, luscious expressive scoring exemplifying the Viennese Ideal, and a skilful, perfectly-paced interweaving of romance and comedy, who could fail but be moved by ‘the widow’?

‍Lehár died on 24 October 1948 in Bad Ischl, near Salzburg.

Our immense thanks to Australian playwright, librettist, and author Justin Fleming, for so generously allowing us to adapt his wonderful libretto for this production, and for his tireless enthusiasm and encouragement for the project since its inception.

Thank you also to our friends and colleagues at Showbiz and NASDA at Ara for their invaluable assistance with wardrobe for this production, and also to the staff and congregation of Knox Church for welcoming us so generously into their beautiful space for our rehearsals this season.

Thank you to all at The Tannery, especially to Lorie Morrison (Sales & Events Manager) and her exceptional front of house team, for their invaluable assistance throughout the production process.

An enormous thank you to Kate Limuloa and her fabulous pre-professional dancers from Silhouette Studios NZ for their gorgeous contribution to this production, and for so kindly lending wardrobe to our grisettes - and to Nicole Hannen for facilitating their involvement.

We also extend our gratitude to Sarah McCracken for helping to assemble our glorious string quartet, to our season photographer Karyn Taylor-Moore, and to our season campaign and programme graphic designer Katherine Doig.

Toi Toi Opera would especially like to thank our wonderful season partners (listed below) for making this extraordinary season possible.